Health IT Finds VC; Internet Ad Revenues Soar [Update]

Health IT Firms Find More Venture Capital: Venture capital investment may have declined overall during the first quarter of 2012, but health IT companies hit pay dirt. The number of deals remained flat at 18, yet the companies raised $102 million, an increase of 75 percent over the same period last year. A Forbes report points to four top deals, all of which should inevitably lead to hiring: Kinnser Software, PerfectServe, Truveris, and TigerText. Dice

Internet Ad Revenues Are Soaring: Ad revenues are growing by the billions, reaching $31 billion in 2011, 22 percent more than the 2010 revenues of $26 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) 2011 Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Mobile advertising became a major source of revenue ($1.6 billion). Search ads topped all revenues at $14.8 billion, and display-related advertising garnered $11.1 billion. The good news for spam haters: email ad revenues were at the bottom, at $213 million. Dice

Nashville Wants 1,000 Tech Workers: Nashville’s Chamber of Commerce announced a task force to cultivate the region’s IT workforce. City officials have spent two years trying to attract Google to the area, and a report by the Nashville Technology Council found 1,044 tech-related jobs open in Middle Tennessee during the fourth quarter of 2011. Nashville-area employers are seeking recruits in application development, business intelligence, unified communications and more. Dice

GE to Hire 300 In Michigan for IT and Research Roles: General Electric, which opened its 200,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center in Van Buren Township in 2009, originally planned to hire 1,100 people there. But with 850 employees already hired, the company has announced it plans to bring the job total to 1,400. The company also plans to expand its summer internships and co-ops for college students by 25 percent, hiring roughly 110 students for summer assignments in Van Buren Township and several GE Aviation locations in Michigan. AnnArbor.com

Government Is Slow to Move to the Cloud: A year and a half after the U.S. Office of Management and Budget declared a “cloud first” strategy, experts say the government is only moving slowly toward the cloud. MeriTalk, an independent group that provides research on government IT, released a study showing that an estimated $5.5 billion has been saved by federal organizations moving to cloud-based systems, with email being the most popular application. But it estimates savings could increase to $12 billion a year if cloud services were more widely adopted. CIO.com

Windows Phones Could Stumble With BYOD: Some of the researchers who most admire Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile OS suggest that the bring-your-own-device trend will hurt its acceptance in the corporate environment, no matter how well-equipped and compatible it is. The features that are so appealing to IT administrators may go overlooked by end users making purchasing decisions, says an IHS senior analyst. If they see that they can accomplish more because of usability on iOS and Android, they’re going to grumble about not being able to use the device they want. Network World